Its nice to see the author back in the saddle, after so many setbacks...I hope she will accept this reviewer's best wishes for her job search...

Meanwhile, this was a nice installment...particularly good was the opening sequence with the dogs (I was wondering why Arianna did not simply launch them on the highwaymen...unless she wanted to give the men a fighting chance?) and Percy and Marguerite's intuitive understanding that their role was to rescue young Belle..all in a day's work for Arianna Blakeney and her distinguished uncle and aunt, eh, what?

I wanted to apologize to the author for the length of time it took for this reader to review this update...I am truly sorry for the author's delaying personal circumstances, and there is a lot of that going around...I hope her's are being felicitously resolved.

This is a good plot development, to set up that Percy's young cousin shares his powers of keen observation (family trait?) and suspects foul play. she's handling herself well, and all of this has the makings of a good story as we try to root out the murderer...gotta say that this reader is particularly looking forward to any interchanges between Arianna and Marguerite, and how the author will handle it!

Glad to see Ms. Draco back in the saddle! She sets the stage well here, then introduces a character meant to spice things up a little: Arianna Thérèse Blakeney. My question is : is this an introduction? If Arianna is a skilled horsewoman, and, as it is implied, a bit of a tomboy, will she want to participate in any of her cousin's exploits? Does she want help in figuring out who murdered members of her family? Does she want revenge? Or will she stay in England and keep Marguerite too busy to miss Percy?

I honestly think it could go either way, so I leave resolutions to Ms. Draco's discretion, but I will be interested in finding out the answers to these questions as I read further!